The Cruelty of Fate
by The Soul of Light and Dark
Summary: He knew she was going to die. He watched it happen every time she touched him. Can he cheat destiny? Or is fate determined to take away the one he loves most? Troke and Pyra are back. Friend/firegrassshipping, and slight hint of LunarEclipse.


We're Back

I woke up, but I didn't open my eyes. I was still in that in-between state where you're half awake and half asleep. I like that state. It's kinda soothing, and I was tempted to just lay there for about a half an hour basking in the sun. Of course, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I figured I had about three seconds.

The next thing I knew something landed right on top of me, jolting me to full awareness in less then a second. Right on time. Without missing a beat I roll over onto my side, knocking the little orange blob that had attacked me off before I then pounced on top of her. We roughhoused like this for a few moments, which finally ended with me holding her head under my arm as I gently dug my knuckles into her forehead.

"Say it," I prompted as she laughed helplessly.

"Alright, alright!" Pyra gasped, still laughing. "You win, Troke. You win!" Satisfied, I let her go. Some people say that falling in love can change a relationship between two people, but that didn't seem to be the case for us. We still goofed around the same way we always had, though admittedly we did enjoy a few tender moment here and there.

Hi all. It's me, Troke. Remember me? The human from the future who got turned into a Treecko? The one who saved all of time? The one who fell in love with his beautiful Torchic partner, Pyra? There we go. I knew it was in there somewhere.

I bet you're all wondering what happened to the two of us after Dialga brought me back from the dead, right? A lot of good things, actually. Firstly, after spending a few more months with the Wigglytuff guild (during which time I discovered that my physical abilities were still on par with Pyra's despite the fact that I'd spent about a year dead and thus out of action) we were selected for the annual Guild Graduation Exam.

It seemed fairly easy at first; just a simple trek through Luminous Forest to find a treasure left by Wigglytuff at the end. However, just before leaving on our exam Wigglytuff warned us to beware a supposed "Grand Master of All Things Bad". Needless to say, that got us a little worried. However, upon reaching the end of the forest we met up with Teddiursa and Ursaring, two locals from Treasure Town who claim that they've been to this place before and met no such Grand Master. Naturally, this had us a little perplexed.

Walking onward, we came to a large pile of leaves lying across a clearing in the woods. Now, we'd seen our share of pitfall traps, and this one was pathetically obvious, so we just walked around it. However, on the way past we were grabbed by a group of people hiding under the thing and yanked underneath into a small cave, where we were greeted by the "Grand Master" and his minions, whom we couldn't see due to it being pitch black under there.

Now, needless to say we were both frightened at first, but that ceased to be the case when Bidoof lifted the leaf covering from the top of the trap because he'd thought that the "Grand Master" could use a little light. This revealed the "Grand Master" and his "minions" to be nothing more than the members of the Wigglytuff guild, though they denied it despite the fact that we could quite clearly see who they were. Obviously this was the real exam: a final test of our ability to hold our own against steep odds. In the fight that ensued, Pyra and I learned something very important about Wigglytuff: he may have been a goofball, but he had without a doubt earned both his rank as a Guildmaster and his reputation as an explorer.

However, in the end we emerged battered but victorious. We continued on the little way to Luminous Springs where the treasure was supposed to be. We met up with Teddiursa and Ursaring, who were standing over a little golden box that contained a Perfect Apple. Pyra and I were tempted to take a bite out of it, seeing as we'd never actually tasted one before, but somehow we figured that doing so might make us fail the exam or else make Wigglytuff angry, which is something you do not want.

We had a quick conversation with the two bears and learned that they had come here because this was the place that Pokemon in this world went to when they wanted to evolve. However, no evolutions had taken place for a long time because the mystic light that catalyzed the transformation hadn't been seen in the spring since the whole episode with time going out of whack. However, as if on cue at that exact moment said light appeared, and a deep mysterious voice came from nowhere asking whom among us sought evolution.

Teddiursa was up on the little rock stage before any of us could blink. Apparently he'd been working with Ursaring for months in order to be ready for this. In a few moments the cuddly little teddy bear we had all known was replaced by a fierce looking grizzly.

When the voice asked if there were any other candidates Pyra and I immediately stepped up. As we implored the sacred light to assist in our transformation I was a little surprised to see the light of anticipation in Pyra's eyes. It was as though her birthday, Christmas and a few other holidays had come all at the same time.

However, that hopeful gleam was soon lost to a look of crushing disappointment when the voice informed us that neither of us were allowed to evolve. Apparently, due to our various escapades through and with time we had begun to create miniature spatial distortions that prevented our bodies from evolving. To say that she was utterly crushed was the understatement of possibly all time. I tried to console her as best I could, but I don't think it helped much. I'd never really thought about it, but apparently this had been a day that Pyra had been looking forward to all her life. Knowing that day would never come must have hurt a lot.

However, skating over that rather sad occurrence we returned to the Guild and presented our trophy, and we were officially graduated right then and there. However, much to our indignation we learned that the only benefits this earned us was that we were allowed to host our own explorations on our own time as well as the fact that I was now allowed to delegate my leadership role to other members of our team. We still had to pay our ridiculous dues to the guild. I swear, Chatot can get on my nerves sometimes, but I've never actually wanted to strangle him until that very moment, and from the look in Pyra's eyes she was thinking roughly the same thing. However, we managed to swallow our urge, and instead we moved our base of operations to Pyra's old home on Sharpedo Bluff. It was roughly around this time that Pyra developed her little 'wake-up call'.

Some time after that we were wandering around Treasure Town when we met up with a Mr. Mime that we'd never met before. The guy claimed to be looking for a famous explorer named Scizor who'd gone missing in a place called Blizzard Island about 30 or so years ago. Having heard of our reputation he asked us to go and find Scizor. We had our doubts, of course; 30 years was a long time. However, we obliged and made our way to the center of Blizzard Island where we found Scizor frozen solid by a rather nasty Froslass, which was surprising given that most Frolslass are very maternal and compassionate figures. Of course, she didn't give us much trouble after Pyra got through with her. After releasing the grateful Scizor, he rewarded us with the Mystery Rank, which no one knew anything about until someone in the Guild got a message "for those who bear the Mystery Rank". It was a call to explore the Giant Volcano and retrieve the Fiery Drum from its guardian, who happened to be Heatran. Apparently there are six other such treasures, so we're waiting eagerly for the other six messages to find their way to us.

Later, we head to the Guild seeking a job to do when we meet up with a very excited Sunflora. Apparently a dungeon known as the Surrounded Sea, rumored to contain massive stores of treasure gathered by various ocean currents, has now opened after several years of being inaccessible. We, of course, immediately went straight there to find that there was indeed a rather fine store of treasure waiting on the lowest level. However, we were surprised to also find a strange Wonder Egg waiting there as well. Intrigued, we collected the egg and brought it back to our base, intending to take it to Chansey Daycare the next day.

To our very great surprise, however, the egg hatched the morning after just as we were waking up, and out came possibly the most adorable little thing I will ever see in my life. The little fella, who we later learned from Chatot was called Manaphy, didn't seem to have the slightest problem with the fact that we looked nothing like him at all, because he immediately christened us Mommy and Daddy.

My time with Manaphy was one of the happiest of my life. Up until then I'd never really though much about being a parent, and neither had Pyra, but as we soon learned we both liked it a lot. The little guy gave us both hours of joy just playing around with him. Admittedly, his almost constant demands for 'Goomies' made life a little difficult, but the happy excitement he showed when he got one made all the crap I'd had to go through to get even one Blue Gummi seem like no trouble at all. We would spend so many days together down be the beach splashing around in the surf, playing in the sand, and just going far a walk along the shore.

Sadly, this happy little life did not continue for nearly as long as I would have liked. One day, after we'd spent yet another day down by the surf, we awoke to find Manaphy gone. We both immediately panicked and began to scour the surrounding area until, with relief we discovered him just staring out at the ocean. However, the panic came right back full force when the little guy suddenly crumpled to the ground and passed out.

According to Chatot, Manaphy was an example of a very rare breed of Pokemon that grew and developed in the sea. The exposure of our little one to open air during this critical time of development must have been extremely bad for him, and as a result he became very sick. Chatot directed us to the Miracle Sea, where a group of Pokemon known as Phione produced a cure-all dew. We went, we saw, we conquered right down to the bottom, where we had to discipline a rather nasty Gyrados who got it into his head to steal the Phione Dew. The grateful sea faeries provided us with a sample of the crucial dew, which we immediately administered to Manaphy.

However, even though he was immediately restored to full health he could not stay with us. HE was still growing, and if he stayed on dry land he would only get sick again. Therefore, he had to be taken out into the sea until he finished growing. Chatot called on a Walrein friend of his to care for Manaphy while he grew up. As I stood there on the beach, listening to Manaphy calling out for his parents as Walrein carried him into the ocean, I felt my heart break. I didn't cry like Pyra, but I swear I was about a second away from diving into the water and dragging Manaphy back to me. I'd grown to love the little guy so much that watching him get dragged away from me felt like I was having my heart ripped in half. Only the knowledge of the fact that him staying was dangerous kept me from doing just that.

We weren't our usual perky selves for a few days after that, and everyone around us could tell. Some days I didn't even feel like getting out of bed. Still, we had to do our duty as an exploration/rescue team, so we continued to go to the Guild every day seeking new jobs. One day, we turned up and found everyone crowding around the lowest level. Who should happen to be standing in the center of attention but the legendary beauties of the famous Team Charm. I'd done a little research about rescue teams in my spare time enough to be reasonably over-awed by their arrival. Pyra obviously knew who they were as well, because she literally fell down on her face in worship.

Of course, Team Charm wasn't just there for the autographs and photo ops, as it were. Apparently, they had come seeking a favor from Wigglytuff who, to everyone's amazement, had once been a member of Team Charm, or whatever they had been before they were Team Charm (how this happened I'll never know. After our battle with the "grand master" I respected Wigglytuff, but if there was one thing he didn't have, it was charm.) Way back when they'd found this weird key shaped like an Unown, but since they couldn't find the lock it went to they gave it to Wigglytuff, who kept it after he went his own way. Now they'd found out that the key opens a dungeon known as Aegis Cave, and they'd come back to Wigglytuff to retrieve the key.

Of course, this is Wigglytuff we're dealing with, and he didn't just hand them the key like that. In fact, for a while he claimed to have absolutely no idea what they were talking about. After Lily, the Gardevoir, offered him a Perfect Apple, he of course charged straight into his room and returned with the thing about a second later.

Team Charm was just about to be on their way when Pyra suddenly spoke up. She'd been staring in silent rapture the whole time, and I didn't think for a second that she'd be able to pluck up the courage to even put two coherent words together. I knew I wouldn't have. However, she actually managed to ask them if the two of us could come along to Aegis Cave. After a moment's consideration Layra, the Lopunny in charge, said that everyone from the Guild was welcome to challenge the cave.

Our trip through Aegis Cave (which, incidentally, happens to be built around the most irritating 'puzzle' in possibly all of time) was rather uneventful except for the fact that every few floors we'd end up fighting one of the three legendary golems, who were on duty as guardians. Let me tell you, Regice, Regirock and Registeel are no walk in the park to deal with _at all_. Still we managed by the skin of our teeth to get past all three of them, something even the great Team Charm found themselves unable to do. They'd been beaten by Registeel and taken prisoner by it until it released them upon our defeating it.

Upon reaching the bottom of Aegis Cave our two teams discovered a chamber filled with decorative statues. At least, that's what we thought until the statues suddenly came to life to reveal Regigigas and a group of Bronzong and Hitmonlee. Needless to say there was a battle to end all battles, in which we with the help of Team Charm emerged victorious. After performing a quick ritual at a shrine that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and high-tailing it out of the cave, we discover a new dungeon appearing in a cliff side about a few miles away from the entrance to Aegis Cave. I was just a little miffed at that. I mean, we went through _all that crap_ and all we got was ANOTHER DUNGEON?!

It's been quite a few months since then, and we've been riding the gravy train the whole way. We've achieved the Master Rank at last, our name is almost synonymous with 'exploration team' and I've actually applied to the Pokemon Exploration Team Federation for a license as a Guildmaster, with Pyra as my right hand. Being accepted means that we will be our own organization, completely independent from all legal affiliations with any other organization except through choice. Basically, we won't have to pay any more dues to the Guild. Team Charm and Scizor have already vouched for us, and although the Federation says they're reserving judgement I think they're leaning in our favor. You should've seen the look on Chatot's face when I told him he was losing his two cash cows. Honestly, it was like his grandmother died.

Yep, life's been pretty good. I've got the best girl on earth, status, money, everything. At least, it was good. That was before things started to go wrong. That was before I started having the dreams, or should I call them nightmares?

-(000)-

_They're baaack! I know, not a lot of story here. I wanted to do a recap from Troke's point of view. Chapter two will be more plot based, don't worry._


End file.
